Hop Harvest Success

Ed picking hops

Ed and I went and picked our hops early Friday morning. We discovered a few notable things for next year – one being that hops like sun and two being that plants with only two or three bines grow much larger hops than plants with lots of bines. We were surprised at the size of some of the hops, especially considering that these plants were transplanted this spring. Some of the bines were producing hops as long as my thumb and bigger around! The hops from about 4 plants were enough for a single brew. This year we’re going to use the majority wet and look into drying and storing for next year.

Hops in hand!

As a side note, one of our gardening volunteers, Carol, walked by us picking and told us there was a huge bine over by the Doctor’s House. We hadn’t been over there in a while, and sure enough there was a massive hop bine that had taken over the fence and grown up a nearby Birch. I think Ed is right in calling it by it’s colloquial name “Wolfweed” as left to their own devices, the hop bines would certainly stangle and kill any nearby plants they could wrap their tendrils around!